14th Feb. Coots and Kites

On 14th I went to Edinburgh for two nights to meet the newest grandchild, Casper, and the other five grandchildren.  There was a bit of a family gathering.

I was up bright and early and aimed to get to Balgavies Loch at about 8.00.  I was a bit late because the AA route instructions at one point read 'slight left'.  What it meant was turn left and its not a 90 degree turn but about 45 degrees.  Anyway I went straight on and got the the Loch via Forfar.  The Loch is a nature reserve run by Scottish Wildlife Trust.  There is an island in the loch and in the summer a pair of Ospreys nest in the pine.  On my visit the island was occupied by Cormorants and a Carrion Crow.

One of the target birds for this trip was a Coot.  Believe it or not I had gone the first six weeks of 2017 without seeing one.  There were about fifty here along with other common water birds like Mallard, Goldeneye and Greylag Geese.

Coot

Coots

There is a path that circumnavigates the Loch.  Part of it is an old railway line. It still has some of the old railway buildings

There is also a bird hide overlooking the Osprey island.  It has some feeders front of the hide and some seed and fat balls in the hide.  I was the only one around at that time so I filled the feeders best I could.  I don't know whether I was supposed to or not.  When I visit again I must remember to take some bird food to leave.  There was the usual array if Tits, Finches, a couple of Robins, Dunnocks and Blackbirds and a small pack of Brown Rats hovering up the food on the ground.

Long-tailed Tit

Brown Rats

Last time I pointed out Brown Rats to someone at a nature reserve they got all upset and said that they would have to do something about it.  I hope no one from SWT reads this and decides to eradicate the Rats.

I had another visit planned before going on the Edinburgh, Argaty Red Kite Centre.  I arrived about an hour before the guide takes visitors up to the hide and the food is laid out for the Kites at 1.30.     Just enough time to consume my packed lunch and look around the centre. I hadn't expected to see any of the birds until 1.30 and was surprised to see half a dozen or so circling  round the centre when I entered the car park.  They were keeping their distance.  There are four in this shot.

 At 1.00 I got my first message about a Little Egret back home at the Loch of Strathbeg, it was from Alex.  I picked up the second message, from John just before 4.00.  Nothing I could do but hope that it stayed around until I returned home.

One of the good things about these organised events is that you meet the other people having the same experience.  The couple from Derbyshire with there three children were up visiting friends.  The enthusiasm (and knowledge) of all the family about all things to do with wildlife was amazing.  The guide had to up his game when explaining the work of the centre to them.

The Kits were amazing as well.  I was not expecting there to be so many.  Certainly more than forty circling and swooping down for the food.  So many is was difficult to get a clear photo.  The crows got in the way as well.

It was also difficult getting a decent shot of a bird without wing tags.

I know that it is important to monitor these rare birds and that the wing tags enables the researcher to get a lot of very useful information but from the point of view of a photographer they are ugly and can ruin a good photo.

But I did get some in the end.

Now it has taken me some time to look through all the images of Red Kites that I took.  There were times when I put my camera on burst mode and took pictures at six a second.  The guy next to me had his camera on burst mode all the time and was shooting 14 every second.  I don't think I want his job of sorting through them and deciding which to keep and which to delete.

To sum up a great days birding - and the star of the show?  Coot or Red Kite?  Both added to the year list.  No it was meeting Casper of course.

Total on list 119